Adverbs: forms
Adverbs ending in -ly
Adverbs have a strong connection with adjectives. Adjectives and adverbs are usually based on the same word. Adverbs often have the form of an adjective + -ly.
Compare
| adjective | adverb |
| He was calm when I told him. | He behaved calmly. |
| That was a beautiful presentation, Carla. | Your work is beautifully presented, Carla. |
Adverbs ending in -ly are usually adverbs of manner (slowly) and degree (completely, fairly).
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in -l have double l:
beautiful → beautifully, careful → carefully, hopeful → hopefully, historical → historically
- Magda looked hopefully at her mother.
- Historically*, there was never any conflict between the two communities.*
Adverbs formed from adjectives ending in -y change the y to i:
easy → easily, busy → busily, lucky → luckily, angry → angrily
- Luckily*, I had a backup copy of the data on a disk.*
- I’ve never seen him react so angrily.
Adverbs ending in a consonant +e keep the e:
definite → definitely, fortunate → fortunately, extreme → extremely, absolute → absolutely
- I am extremely grateful to you.
- We were absolutely exhausted at the end of it all.
Adverbs ending in -ward(s) or -wise
There is a small group of adverbs which end in -ward(s) or -wise. The -ward(s) words can end in either -ward or -wards (inward, inwards).
- -wards: inwards, eastwards, upwards, downwards
- -wise: clockwise, lengthwise, likewise
- The doctor asked her to move her head upwards but she couldn’t.
- Turn the handle clockwise to start it.
- He’s the one that they all love. Whatever he does, they do likewise. (They do the same thing.)
Adverbs with the same form as adjectives
Some adverbs have the same form as adjectives. The most common are: fast (not fastly), left, hard, outside, right, straight, late, well, and time words such as daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.
Compare
| adjective | adverb |
| This coconut is really hard. You’ll need a hammer to break it up. | You have to bang the door hard to shut it. |
| She drives a fast car. | They can swim quite fast now actually. |
| An outside light would be a really good idea for our house. | When I went outside, the light came on automatically. |
| I get a monthly pay cheque. | My company pays me monthly. |
Don’t confuse adjectives and adverbs. Adjectives modify nouns or are used after verbs such as be, become, seem, look, smell, taste.
- She walks very elegantly. (adverb of manner, describing how she walks)
- He wore an elegant suit and a silk tie. (adjective describing the suit)
- She looks very elegant in that long skirt. (adjective after look)
Adjectives ending in -ly
Some adjectives end in -ly, e.g. lively, lonely, ugly. We don’t form adverbs from these adjectives because they are not easy to pronounce. We usually reword what we want to say instead.
- Don’t act in a silly way.
- Not:
Don’t act sillily. - She said it in a friendly way.
- Not:
She said it friendlily.
Adverbs not related to adjectives
Some adverbs (e.g. just, quite, so, soon, too, very) are not directly related to adjectives:
- This is just what I am looking for. (just = exactly)
- These cups are not quite the same. (not quite = not exactly)
- Why is this road so narrow?
- I look forward to seeing you soon.
- That’s too expensive.
- That’s a very strange story.
Gradable adverbs
Most adverbs, like most adjectives, are gradable (they can express different degrees of qualities, properties, states, conditions and relations). We can modify adverbs using other types of adverbs and comparative forms to make longer adverb phrases.
Compare
| He plays the piano amazingly.He plays the piano really amazingly. | really is a degree adverb |
| She played golf skilfully this time.She played golf more skilfully this time. | more is a degree adverbmore skilfully is a comparative form |